Twisted Creek

Chapter 14

Monday

September 23, 2006

Midnight hours

Luke silently paced along the porch in front of Jefferson’s old store. He felt restless. It was too rainy to either swim or build a fire. He loved both. Swimming had been his exercise of choice since he’d been in college and he liked watching the fire climb up the night sky. Campfires always reminded him that he was a quarter Indian. He liked the idea that his roots had dug into this land for thousands of years. Sometimes, when he swam in the lake or ran in the woods, he swore a wildness in his blood warmed as if he were home.

Turning over in his hand the patch that Timothy had given him, Luke stared at it once more. The symbol of the code talkers, a special group of men, all with Navajo blood, who had used their language as a code that the Nazis never broke. Luke had heard of the group, he’d even seen a few movies that mentioned them, but he’d never realized how different they must have been. For the first time since his grandfather had died, he wished he’d listened closer to the stories his grandfather and Jefferson had told.

Timothy said he found the old patch among a box of patches he’d collected from World War II. He’d said Luke could have it. That it would mean more to him.

The boy was right. Luke closed his hand around the Marine patch. It meant a great deal.

He was aware someone still moved around in the store and guessed it would be Allie. She usually turned off the twinkle lights when she went up the stairs. He’d watched her a few times, locking the doors, checking the windows as if the tiny locks would protect from everything in life.

He had a feeling she’d make a go of this place, but it could cause problems. As long as this lake was a dying community, the drug dealers would feel safe. If it started to prosper, they’d have to find another place…or run her out. He couldn’t shake the feeling that they were moving in from the outskirts. He’d found more damage besides the fires. After he’d talked to Timothy, Luke had checked out the Andrews dock. More than the wind had destroyed the landing.

If someone wanted the people out here to leave, it wouldn’t be that hard to make life tougher on them. Drug dealers wouldn’t worry about the old men, or even people like Mary Lynn and Mrs. Deals, but cabins like the Andrews one brought successful businessmen out to fish.

Luke decided it might be wise to take a few weeks more of his vacation time and hang around.

Someone touched his shoulder and he twisted away, almost reaching for his Glock before he caught her in the corner of his vision.

“Sorry,” she muttered. “I always seem to be touching you and I know you don’t like it. But it’s kind of like trying not to think of the word elephant when someone says not to.”

She moved a few feet away. “I just came out to say thanks for fixing the old potbellied stove this morning. In another month we may need it to keep the place warm.” She dug in her pocket and pulled out a ten. “You don’t have to pay for the meal. We traded work for food, remember.”

Somewhere she’d gotten the idea that he couldn’t afford food and Luke didn’t know how to tell her otherwise. He’d been wearing his oldest fishing clothes when he’d met her and she seemed convinced he was broke. If he told her he had a job, she’d ask what it was and then his cover would be in danger of being blown.

“I wanted to pay,” he finally said as he stared at her, wishing she’d look up at him and not at the money in her hand.

“Oh, all right,” she answered in a tone that said she was trying not to hurt his feelings.

“And another thing.” He was just tired enough to let his guard down an inch. “I never said I minded you touching me.” He could name every time she had. The accidental brushings of her arm against his. The way she patted him when he was working. The times she’d passed by and let her hand brush his shoulder.

Allie finally looked up at him. “You don’t?”

Luke closed all the extra space between them. “No,” he whispered, almost touching her lips. “I don’t.”

Before he thought, he pressed his mouth to hers and kissed her. She was so close he could feel her whole body shake and react, but he didn’t pull her to him.

For a few heartbeats she let him kiss her, then slowly she kissed him back. Not a soft, chaste kiss or a hot, passionate one, but a solid kiss of longing that whispered hesitance from the past and promises of the future.

Before he lost what control he had left, Luke stepped away. “Good night,” he snapped, and turned into the rain before either of them said or did anything else.

He was halfway back to his cabin before he noticed the rain pounding down on him. “Hell,” he mumbled. With the mood he was in, lightning could probably strike him and he wouldn’t notice.

He laughed. Maybe it already had.